12 Facts About John Woolfe

John Woolfe was a British racing driver from England, who specialised in sports car racing.

John Woolfe was killed as a result of crashing on the first lap of the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans race, an event which caused the traditional "Le Mans start" to be abolished the following year.

John Woolfe was a gentleman driver, and had several years' experience of racing sports cars.

John Woolfe formed his own team, John Woolfe Racing, with his business partner, Arnold Burton, and in 1968 he bought a Chevron B12, specially adapted to be fitted with a Repco V8 engine, similar to the unit which had won the Formula One World Championships in 1966 and 1967.

John Woolfe was dissatisfied with the reliability of the Chevron-Repco, and opted to buy a significantly more powerful Porsche 917 for the 1969 event.

John Woolfe paid DM140,000 for the car, which was delivered to him at the Circuit de la Sarthe ahead of practice.

John Woolfe over-revved the engine, causing it to fail, but Porsche transported a new unit to be fitted to his car.

John Woolfe was advised by Porsche to let Linge start the race, as he had more experience with the 917, but John Woolfe wanted his family to see him start, and was wary of a possible early retirement preventing them from seeing him in action.

John Woolfe, meanwhile, did not fasten his belts and started aggressively, making up several places on the opening lap.

At the very fast Maison Blanche curve towards the end of the lap, John Woolfe lost control of the 917, which crashed heavily into the barriers, overturned and caught fire.

John Woolfe was thrown out of the cockpit by the force of the impact, and died from his injuries as he was being helicoptered to hospital.

John Woolfe's Chevron went missing for thirty years, but has recently been discovered in a German barn and is currently being restored.